Jeep Renegade VS Ford EcoSport
Jeep Renegade
Likes
- Tonka tough
- Lots of standard inclusions
- Looks the part
Dislikes
- Iffy entertainment software
- Naff interior
- Vague steering
Ford EcoSport
Likes
Dislikes
Summary
Jeep Renegade
Jeep's Renegade might be late to the mini-SUV party but it comes with a pretty impressive back catalogue to suggest that this is a SUV that can cash the cheques its name can write.
The top of the range Trailhawk can write even bigger cheques than the lower models, bringing with it a range of off-road tech toys to let you really get down and dirty.
| Safety rating | |
|---|---|
| Engine Type | 2.4L |
| Fuel Type | Premium Unleaded Petrol |
| Fuel Efficiency | 7.5L/100km |
| Seating | 5 seats |
Ford EcoSport
Baby SUVs are currently the flavour of the month - indeed the decade, it seems - and one of the easiest ways for a car company to create a player in this burgeoning segment is to take the skeleton of its smallest hatch and remould it in an SUV style.
This is exactly what Ford has done with the EcoSport, taking the foundations from the company's smallest car, its Fiesta hatch. How has the translation worked for Ford's smallest SUV?
| Safety rating | |
|---|---|
| Engine Type | 1.5L |
| Fuel Type | — |
| Fuel Efficiency | 6.5L/100km |
| Seating | 5 seats |
Verdict
Jeep Renegade6.4/10
Rugged, dependable and good off-road are the most obvious qualities of the Trailhawk. It stands out from the rest of the mini-SUVs by being able to do the S and the U with plenty of vigour.
It's just a shame that its on-road manners can't match that of its big brother, the Cherokee. Unless you're planning on proper off-roading, the Trailhawk might not be quite what you're looking for.
How do you think the Renegade Trailhawk matches up to its small SUV rivals? Tell us in the comments below.
Click here to see more 2016 Jeep Renegade Trailhawk pricing and spec info.
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Ford EcoSport6/10
The EcoSport is less adventure vehicle and more a vehicle for those for whom adventure comes in smaller, easy to access doses. It’s small, easy to park and easy to drive, but it’s certainly well behind the rest of the class when it comes to a complete package.
It’s not a particularly nice thing to drive, for example, thanks to underdone suspension and poorly modulated brakes, and the quicker that tailgate spare is consigned to history, the better.
Does the Ford EcoSport rate a spot on your shopping list? Let us know!
Design
Jeep Renegade7/10
In what is absolutely not a coincidence, the Renegade immediately conjures up the Wrangler. Upright grille from the Willys Jeep (references abound here), round headlights, squared off wheel arches to mimic the Wrangler's guards, short overhangs and big rear view mirrors.
The 17-inch wheels look completely lost in the wheelarches which are even more cavernous owing to the Trailhawk's 50mm of extra ride height. The wheels are also a bit cheap looking but will probably survive the belting the car is intended to take.
Less rugged is the interior, despite a fairly self-conscious effort to make it look and feel chunky. The front seats are flat and unsupportive with the rears just as lacklustre making sure everyone is sliding around together. Luckily, front passengers get a dash-mounted grab handle.
It seems quite well put together, however, but with carpets and easily-marked plastics, you'll hope your passengers don't bring the mud in with them too often. And the "Since 1941" stamped into the steering wheel can go.
The dashboard is reasonably clear and has plenty of information to share via the screen between the dials but whoever thought marking the redline with a water splash graphic in bright orange should probably rethink their design decisions.
Storage is limited to two cupholders up front, door pockets in each door and nets on the front seat backs.
Ford EcoSport
Looking at the front end of the four-door, five-seat EcoSport, it's obvious that Ford has developed a company-wide look for its SUV family, with the large prominent chrome grille mimicking that in the company's other SUVs, including the Escape and the Everest.
For a small car, the EcoSport is quite slab-sided with narrow windows, a prominent roof and squared off rear, and an overly long front-centre look. Along with a squared-off, bluff bonnet line and the EcoSPort’s tall suspension, it gives the EcoSport the faux SUV look that Ford is gunning for.Â
On the inside the car is dominated by a deep dashboard that's lined with a hard, dimpled plastic. This theme continues throughout the car, across the tops of the door cards and into the rear as well. The colour scheme verges on sombre, with a low-key grey, silver, and black theme challenged only by a cream coloured head lining.Â
Practicality
Ford EcoSport
The EcoSport is marketed as a five seat, five door small SUV, or compact SUV, but really the rear compartment particularly, is designed best for two occupants.Â
ISOFIX points are located in the rear but there are no provisions for charging or for ventilation, while in the front the sheer lack of dimension of the EcoSport means the driver and passenger are seated quite close together.Â
In terms of storage there are a handful of very small oddment bins scattered on the centre console, along with two cupholders line astern. All four doors can take small bottles and there are another two cupholders in a rear pull-down armrest.
Probably the most distinctive - and probably most annoying - feature of the EcoSport is its rear tailgate. Instead of a traditional top hinged style, the EcoSport uses a side opening door with a single strut, with a full size spare wheel mounted to the rear of it.Â
Finding the switch to open the door itself is hard enough, especially if you've never done it before, and the door itself is surprisingly heavy. As well, if you park the EcoSport in the wrong place you simply won't be able to open the door to access the boot area fully.
It's an anachronistic design in a world where practicality rules, and this will make or break a buying decision for a lot of people. Thankfully, Ford has responded, and will offer the EcoSport without a rear door-mounted spare wheel from the middle of 2018.
The cargo area itself has 743 litres of space with the seats up and 1178 litres with them down - isn't too bad in terms of floor space, although it does narrow up quite significantly when you get to the seat backs.Â
Ford, though, has added a split-level floor that's designed to provide a flat loading surface when the two rear seats are tumbled forward. Oh, and you have to lift the seat bases up and away before you drop those seat backs, too.
Passenger accommodations are okay at best. The fitment of a sunroof to the top spec Titanium model doesn't do the car any favours, particularly in the rear, thanks to the deeper roof lining needed for a sunroof. If there is a taller driver up front, then you’ll need to find a very small rear passenger as legroom all but disappears, while fitting three across the rear really isn't an option for even a moderate journey.
ISOFIX seat points are provided for two baby seats, while the driving position itself is more than adequate with fair visibility. Something to note though, the porthole provided at the base of the A pillar to give the driver a slightly better view really does nothing at all thanks to the thickness of that pillar.Â
The steep windscreen, a long dash, and slightly bulbous bonnet also means that front visibility, particularly when parking, is quite difficult and it's very hard to get a sense of where the front of the car actually is.
Ford's SYNC 3 system does provide an excellent interface for all operations with phones, media, and satellite navigation, though as mentioned the buttons on the steering wheel are quite numerous and very small, so a little bit of tactility is needed to operate them.Â
Other than that, the rest of the main controls are pretty straightforward with a traditional automatic gear shift and manual handbrake.
The multimedia system is operated via a small screen that sits proud on the dash, while all instruments in the EcoSport are reasonably well labelled. The majority of buttons are clustered around the steering wheel and can be hard to discern their function given their lack of size.Â
The top-spec Titanium offers a black leatherette style interior treatment, which is reasonably well presented… but the sheer volume of harder plastics does let the side down.
There are two USB ports up front but none in the rear, and the 12v points are very well hidden.Â
Price and features
Jeep Renegade6/10
The Renegade range starts at $28,000 for the 1.6-litre Renegade Sport manual front-wheel drive, climbing between $2000 and $3000 through the Sport Auto, Longitude Auto, Limited Auto with a final jump of $4000 to the 2.4-litre auto-only Trailhawk.
Standard is a nine-speaker stereo with Bluetooth and USB, 17-inch alloys, dual-zone climate control, reversing camera, rear parking sensors, keyless entry and start, cruise control, electric front seats with heating, satellite navigation, automatic bi-xenon headlights, auto wipers, leather trim, roof rails, front and middle bash plates, full size spare, heated leather steering wheel, privacy glass, trailer sway control and tyre pressure monitoring.Â
The lairy Omaha orange is $500, part of an eleven colour palette with only two no-cost paint options (black and white).
You can add lane departure warning, auto-parking and a black painted roof for $500 each, a removable and retractable roof called My Sky Roof for $2200 or a more conventional electric sunroof for $1900.
The Beats-branded nine-speaker stereo is run via Fiat-Chryser's UConnect system, accessible through the 6.5-inch touchscreen. While it improves with every attempt, it's still quite clunky and when the sat-nav is added, becomes a bit of a mess.
Thankfully, not every function has been crammed into the touchscreen interface, so you'll spend more time with your hands on the wheel rather than working out which bit of the screen has the climate control.
Ford EcoSport
The EcoSport Titanium we tested costs $28,990 before on-road costs, and it’ll be cross-shopped with cars like Hyundai’s Kona Elite FWD ($28,500) and Honda’s HR-V VTi-S ($27,990), as well as the category-leading Mitsubishi ASX LS FWD at $28,500.
Its specs include keyless entry and smart key, start button, an 8.0-inch colour multimedia screen which uses Ford’s Sync3 system, single-zone climate control air-conditioning, automatic headlights, rain-sensing wipers, sunroof, leather seats, HID projector headlights and LED daytime running lights, 17-inch alloy wheels and roof rails.
Under the bonnet
Jeep Renegade6/10
The Trailhawk is powered by Fiat's 2.4-litre four naturally-aspirated four-cylinder producing 129 kW and 230 Nm. Jeep reckons you'll get 7.5L/100km on the combined cycle. Our mostly city driving with a longish motorway run produced an 11.0L/100km average over a week.
The transmission is a nine-speed ZF automatic driving all four wheels.
The Trailhawk also has Jeep's five mode Selec-Terrain system which should cover pretty much every eventuality – Auto, Sport, Mud, Sand and, just for the Trailhawk, Rock. The Trailhawk is rated to tow 400kg unbraked and 907kg braked.
Ford EcoSport
The Titanium offers up Ford’s clever 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine, which combines with a six-speed automatic gearbox. It makes a fighty 92kW and 150Nm, which is pretty cool for such a tiny motor – but ultimate performance is blunted by a 1368kg kerb weight.
Efficiency
Ford EcoSport
Rated at 6.7 litres per 100km, the EcoSport Titanium consumed a dash-indicated 7.9L/100km over a shortened 120km test loop. It can run on 91RON, and it has a 52-litre fuel tank.
Driving
Jeep Renegade6/10
The Trailhawk name suggest that things are going to get muddy – compared to the rest of the range, the range-topper rides 50mm higher and has exposed, easy-to-reach tow hooks in the fairly unlikely event you get stuck. It also has a 20:1 low-range crawl ratio and Active Drive 4x4 which means it can switch between front and all-wheel drive. It'll also wade through almost half a metre of water. It's a genuine mud-plugging proposition and will take on some much bigger machinery out in the bush.
On the road, where we spent all our time in the Renegade, it's not what you'd call particularly inspiring. There's a number of sources of noise that contribute to a less than quiet cabin and having to constantly correct your course at freeway speeds adds to the tiring nature of the Renegade.
It's much better at lower speeds, pottering around but then again, its nine-speed transmission needs a lot more work on the shift mapping because it seems to forget which gear it needs to be in when you sink the right foot. If you don't need the Trailhawk's extra off-road goodies, consider the 1.4 litre Limited or Longitude.
Ford EcoSport
Unfortunately the EcoSport doesn't really come together that well. Developed in a relative hurry off the basis of an ageing Fiesta platform, the car just doesn't really gel, particularly when driving around town.Â
The brakes, in particular, have a very strange modulation feel, in that the first small part of pedal travel does very little to stop the car, before the brakes bite very hard. It makes the car awkward to drive smoothly, which is an annoyance in stop/start traffic.
The three-cylinder one-litre engine is a surprise package. It's smooth, linear, and although it’s raucous when pushed, settles down into quiet operation very quickly. Steering is okay, but it doesn't provide much in the way of feedback to the driver. Of course, this is not a sports car, but this is also a car that will make a regular driver wonder why it doesn't feel as nice as it should for a new car.Â
The EcoSport's ride is soft and comfortable, thought it quickly falls apart when pushed even moderately hard. It's a level of ride that's designed to add comfort for occupants… and really little more.Â
The front suspension, in particular, crashes and bangs over even moderately sharp impacts and overall it really feels like a narrow, tall vehicle it is. The centre of gravity does feel quite high and the slab sides do leave it susceptible to even moderately stiff side draughts.Â
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Safety
Jeep Renegade7/10
Seven airbags (including driver's knee bag), traction and stability controls, roll mitigation, blind spot monitoring, ABS and brake assist.
The Renegade does not yet have an ANCAP star rating although it scored five EuroNCAP stars in 2014.
Ford EcoSport
The Titanium is the best equipped of all the EcoSport range, with It also offers a rear-view camera with front and rear sensors, digital speedo, blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert. It doesn’t, however, offer AEB in any model, and this generation of car won’t ever have it.
Regardless, it still carries a maximum five-star safety rating from ANCAP.
Ownership
Ford EcoSport
With just a three-year, 100,000km warranty, Ford’s offering is fast becoming one of the least generous in the game. Its fixed price service deal works out at around $280 for the first five years or 75,000km (whichever comes first), so that’s not too bad.
Servicing should be carried out every at 12 months or 15,000km.